A Complicated Family
by Qweb
Summary: The Edwards family is about to go on vacation and Danny comes to bid his daughter bon voyage. OK, you know this is not going to turn out well, but did you expect car chases and gun battles? Rated T for violence and swearing, but no worse than the show.
1. A Family Trip

_I kind of liked where the episode E Malama left off with cordial relations among Danny, Stan and Rachel. This story takes place around that time._

_I don't own anything to do with Hawaii Five-0. I'd be nicer to them if I did._

**A Complicated Family**

**Chapter 1****: A Family Trip**

The Edwards family drove into the small, private airport on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Their private jet was waiting on the sleepy runway, and someone else.

"Look, there's Daddy!" Grace Williams said excitedly.

"Danny?" Her mother craned her neck to see her ex-husband, arms folded and relaxed in the sunshine, leaning against the fender of his sleek silver Camaro. He stood straight as the Mercedes sedan pulled up near the plane.

The driver of the car, Stan Edwards' personal assistant, started. "Who, the cop, where?" Ernest Fleming had heard some stories about Danny Williams' volatile temper and didn't want to get anywhere near him.

Stan Edwards patted his assistant's shoulder. "He's not here to make trouble," he soothed.

"How did he find us?" the man said nervously.

"I was wondering the same thing," Rachel said with deceptive mildness.

Her current husband cleared his throat. "He called me and asked. Politely," Stan Edwards added, when Rachel frowned. Relations were not always polite between the exes, but at the moment they were amicable and Stan didn't want to start any fights just before they went on vacation. "I figured I might as well tell him. He's a detective. He could probably find out anyway."

"True."

"He only wants to say goodbye to Gracie," Stan said mildly.

The 8-year-old was bouncing up and down, happy at the unexpected meeting with her beloved father.

Rachel's tense expression eased. Danny had given up one of his weekends with Grace to allow her to visit her grandmother in England. He begrudged every second away from his daughter, but he had been tolerably reasonable about this trip. A chance to say goodbye was only fair.

Grace scooted out of the car and ran to throw herself into her father's arms.

"Hi, monkey," Danny said affectionately. "I came to say have a good time in England."

"I wish you were coming, too," the girl pouted.

Danny laughed and met Rachel's eyes over his daughter's shoulder. "I don't think your mother and step-Stan would enjoy that so much, and your grandmother would not be happy at all."

Grace sighed acceptance. "But I'll miss you," she said, hugging him again.

"I'll miss you more," Danny responded, and meant every word. "And someday we'll go on a trip together, just you and me."

"Disneyland!"

"As soon as I save the money," Danny promised.

"We'd better go, Grace," Rachel said. "We don't want to keep the pilot waiting." She took her daughter's hand and led her toward the plane.

The uniformed pilot had opened the step-up door when the Mercedes approached.

"Thank you for coming, Danny," Rachel said as he followed them toward the plane. "It means a lot to Grace."

"It means a lot to me," Danny answered. "Thank you for telling me the flight time," he added to Stan.

"No problem," the executive said and added tentatively, "We're family."

"A complicated family," Danny said with a chuckle. He gestured at Fleming. "Is this one of our cousins?" he joked, thinking of cousins Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakaua and their extensive family.

"This is Ernie Fleming. He's my go-to guy. Makes all my travel arrangements," Stan said with appreciation.

"Pleased to meet you, Ernie," Danny said.

Fleming shied away, as if Danny had brandished a gun instead of extending a hand. He was sweating more profusely than the balmy afternoon seemed to call for.

"You OK?" Danny asked.

"People who carry guns make me nervous," Ernie said, mopping his face.

"A rational fear," Danny acknowledged. "But I wasn't planning on shooting anyone this afternoon."

"I think he's heard too much about those anger management issues," Stan joked.

"I said I was working on them," Danny protested, amazed he was having a friendly conversation with Stan.

The detective glanced at the pilot coming down the steps to greet his passengers. Danny's gaze sharpened.

The sleeves of the pilot's dark blue uniform coat revealed a solid two inches of white shirt cuff and strained tightly around the sole fastened button. The pant legs revealed a glimpse of red socks and scuffed, unpolished shoes.

"Stan, you know this guy?" Danny asked quietly.

The businessman was surprised. "No, I use this company all the time, but I don't know this pilot."

Rachel and Grace stepped toward the pilot. Danny's spidey-sense tingled like a thumped funny bone. (Super SEAL Steve McGarrett wasn't the only one with super powers.)

"Rachel, get away from that guy!" Danny ordered, as he drew his gun. Ernie squawked in alarm. Stan took a step backwards. Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Daniel!"

Danny ignored his contentious ex and called his daughter in the tone of a parent who sees his child about to run into a busy street. "Grace, come here now!" he snapped.

Grace obeyed the voice of command instantly, automatically, ducking behind her father. Rachel followed to retrieve her daughter. That suited Danny, because it drew her farther from the pilot whose grim — grim, not surprised — expression told Danny that his suspicions were correct.

Rachel walked stiffly back to her ex scolding him for trying to spoil their trip.

"Rachel," Danny said just as tightly. "Have you ever seen me draw my weapon in front of Grace?"

Rachel was suddenly uncertain. She joined her daughter behind Danny and looked back at the pilot, who had not said a word.

"What are you doing?" Ernie protested weakly. He started to walk past Danny, but Stan caught his arm.

"Don't get in his way," Stan warned.

"Look at him," Danny ordered, gesturing at the man by the plane. "Ever see such an ill-fitting uniform on a pilot? Look at his face. He's not surprised, not protesting his innocence." He addressed the "pilot." "You, get down on the ground. Spread your hands. Do it!"

The man didn't move. Instead, Danny saw movement inside the plane. Two gunmen sprang to the door and began firing. Then the pilot did drop to the ground, pulling a weapon from beneath his ill-fitting jacket as he did so.

Danny fired back, hitting one of the men in the plane, causing the other to pull back and the pilot to duck behind the steps.

A Porsche sped from behind a hangar. Reinforcements and not for him, Danny realized. He glanced at his Camaro, but it was farther away and the coupe would be harder to enter than the four-door Mercedes.

"Into the Mercedes!" Danny ordered. "You three in the back," he gestured at the adults. "Grace, get in the front," he said, as he ran for the driver's door.

Ernie was gobbling in fearful protest. Stan shoved him forcefully into the back seat all the way to the far side so Rachel could jump in beside them.

Danny floored it.

The Mercedes was new, a replacement for the carjacked vehicle that Rachel couldn't bring herself to enter again. It had a powerful engine, but also a lot of weight to move, especially with five people inside and a trunk full of luggage. Danny found himself bobbing, as if his urging could make the car move faster.

As the Mercedes roared toward the airport exit, the Porsche skidded to a halt to let the phony pilot and the surviving gunman plunge in. Danny thought the delay might give him enough time to escape, but a second car, a black BMW tried to block his exit.

Danny swerved around it and cut right on the road outside. Left was the way Danny had come. Right was unknown territory. Now he was running blind, running scared, with his daughter clutching the door handle beside him and three civilians bouncing off each other in the back seat.

* * *

><p>After the carjacking, Stan had traded in that Mercedes for a larger, sturdier model that seemed safer to his traumatized family. But it wasn't fast, especially when it was loaded down with five people and a trunk full of luggage.<p>

Shots peppered the rear of the sedan. Danny and his passengers all ducked automatically and Danny was suddenly glad for the trunk full of bullet barricades.

"Keep your heads down," Danny ordered. The back window shattered, reinforcing his warning. Ernie whimpered.

"Daddy." The quaver in Grace's voice made Danny mad.

"Hang on!" Danny tapped the brakes. Suddenly the nose of the pursuing BMW was level with the Mercedes' bullet-riddled trunk. The shooter saw a perfect chance to take out the driver. Hanging out the window, he brought his gun to bear as Danny brought his whole car to bear on the gunman. The Mercedes slammed into the passenger side of the BMW.

The crunch of metal on metal totally drowned the scream of agony as the gunman's arm was pulverized between the crashing cars.

The mass of the Mercedes sent the lighter BMW spinning out of control and forced the Porsche to brake hard to avoid its cohort.

The Mercedes roared away, making the most of its head start. But the sports cars recovered quickly and zoomed in pursuit.

"That's one scumbag who won't shoot at anyone else's daughter," Danny muttered in satisfaction as he fumbled for his cell phone and handed it to Grace.

"Call Steve," he ordered. "Please don't be in the water," Danny prayed under his breath.

* * *

><p>On the beach, planning a long swim before dinner, Steve McGarrett was about to step out of his cargo pants when the pocket began to vibrate. He pulled the pants back over his swim trunks so he could fish out the phone that was flashing his partner's name.<p>

"So, Grace get off OK?" he asked, and heard gunfire for an answer.

**To be continued**


	2. A Family Gathering

**A Complicated Family**

**Chapter 2****: A Family Gathering**

"Danny!" The alarm in Steve McGarrett's voice made Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakaua drop their cooler on the sand and rush to his side.

The commander thumbed the speaker so they all heard their friend Danny Williams shouting over the roar of the Mercedes' engine, "Steve! Someone tried to kidnap the family at the airport."

Distant gunfire made Danny interrupt himself with cursing, as he floored the gas pedal of the powerful car. But the pursuers had powerful cars, too, and faster.

"Where are you?" Steve demanded.

"I don't know," Danny confessed. "I'm headed north, off the grid and running, with a silver Porsche and a black BMW on my tail. I've got five people in a Mercedes, which is not built for speed. I can't outrun them. I need to find a place to take cover."

Steve was pulling his clothes into place as he ran for his truck with the cousins hot on his heels.

Stan leaned from the back seat to yell the name of the street they were racing on. "There's an old canning factory up ahead, Danny. On the right. It's closed but the buildings are there."

"You sure?" Danny demanded of his ex's current husband.

"Yes, went there all the time as a kid. The U'ai Pineapple Factory."

"I know it," Chin yelled, clinging to the edge of his seat as McGarrett's Silverado charged onto the street, siren and lights clearing the way.

"Chin, we need a chopper," Steve ordered. "Call Aku."

Chin hit his speed dial for the SWAT commander, Lieutenant David Akutagawa.

"We're on our way, Danny," Steve said. "Leave your phone on so we can track you."

"Right, but don't call," Danny responded, taking a tight curve on two wheels. "I'm expecting company. Gotta bake a cake."

"Hang on, Danny," Steve urged.

"Hang on! I'm clinging by my fingernails as it is. I've got two cars of armed kidnappers behind me, four unarmed civilians to protect, a trunk full of riot gear parked back at the airport and my daughter..." he swallowed. "My daughter is in the car!"

The fear in Danny's voice tore at his friends. They knew it wasn't fear for himself, but for Grace.

"We're coming!" Steve said.

"Don't dawdle. Gotta hang up now, I need to concentrate." Grace ended the call, but left the phone on so Five-0 could track them via GPS.

"OK, I need everyone to look around their seats and pick up anything that might be useful, even if it looks like trash."

In the back seat, the adults found a plastic bag from a fast food restaurant that still had a few napkins inside and a half-empty bottle of water.

Grace checked the glove compartment, but there wasn't anything but the car registration and a street map. Not even a flashlight. Danny regretted the stun grenades and extra clips of ammo that were probably filling the Camaro's glove compartment.

"OK, listen up, when we stop, make a run for the nearest building. Hopefully, I can keep them at bay long enough for backup to get here. Got it?" Everyone agreed they did.

The pursuers fired again. Everyone ducked instinctively, as bullets plinked off the trunk.

One stupid brain cell sang hallelujah that he was driving Stan's car not his, while the rest of the brain cells screamed at it to shut up and focus! Honestly, sometimes even Danny got tired of his rants.

"The turn's coming up. Here, Danny! Here!" Stan shouted.

Danny just barely saw the overgrown opening to the gravel road. He spun the Mercedes and dove through the narrow opening, splintering a wooden gatepost on the way in.

The two pursuing cars missed the turn and screeched to a halt, tires smoking. They roared in reverse, then aimed for the side road.

The delay gave Danny and his passengers just a tiny bit of breathing room as the Mercedes braked to a dust-spraying halt next to a desiccated flower garden in front of the cannery.

"Into the office!" Danny shouted, pointing at a labeled door that hung half open. The building's cinderblock walls looked like a perfect fort.

Danny took cover behind the Mercedes. Careful of his limited supply of ammunition, he held his fire until the Porsche roared into range. He popped up from behind the Mercedes and fired three rounds into the driver's side of the Porsche. Red spattered the inside of the windshield and the car slewed right, bumping the BMW. Both cars skidded to a halt. The four remaining able-bodied kidnappers bailed out and took cover, firing back at the detective.

A bullet hit a ceramic pot, causing it to explode like a hand grenade. One shard hit Danny on the temple and he fell, dazed. The gun fell from his nerveless hand and he tilted sideways, scrabbling for it. He wasn't unconscious, but for a moment he was helpless and exposed to the enemy.

Grace screamed and Stan found himself up and running before he even realized it. He didn't know someone was racing alongside until he heard his wife bark, "Grace! Stay there!"

"Rachel!" Stan gasped in surprise.

"Get Danny," his wife ordered, as she dove for the detective's fallen gun.

She threw herself down, hearing in her mind Danny's instructions from years past, "The prone position is the most stable and provides the most cover." Rachel wondered if she'd recall how to fire the automatic. Her mind wasn't certain, but her hands remembered. Bracing herself on her elbows, she sighted down the barrel and fired at the emerging attackers, sending them plunging back into cover.

Stan snatched up Danny in a fireman's carry and galloped back to the cover of the factory office. The businessman was immensely grateful for the emergency seminar his company had sponsored. Danny was a lightweight compared to Josephson in accounting.

Head dangling, scalp dripping blood down his ex-wife's husband's back, Danny muttered, "I never imagined this, never in my wildest dreams."

"Me neither," Stan answered, glad the police officer was awake and aware.

Rachel's covering fire ceased and she sped past her laden husband to dive into the open door where Fleming clutched Grace's arm to prevent her from following her mother.

Stan's body cringed as he ran, expecting gunfire at any moment, but none came.

"Why aren't they shooting?" he panted, as Rachel and Grace helped him lay Danny on the floor.

"Want you alive," Danny grunted, trying to blink away double images, hindered by blood running into his eyes.

Rachel fired out the door, just to remind the kidnappers that she had a gun.

Stan and Ernie hauled a desk to the door to block it and provide cover for their Annie Oakley. Grace used the paper napkins and the water to wipe the blood from her father's face.

"See, I told you the trash might come in handy," Danny said.

"It won't stop bleeding," the girl said in distress.

Danny took the wad of napkins and pressed it firmly to the wound, wincing at the pain.

"Don't worry, monkey, scalp wounds bleed like a son of a … uh ... gun," Danny said, preventing himself from swearing just in time. "It's not serious."

Grace sat beside her father on the floor, while he tried to still the throbbing in his head. Danny watched the group by the door: Rachel fierce in defense of her family, Stan hovering at her back and Ernie looking back into the room, eyes widening.

* * *

><p>The crash of a shot behind her made Rachel start and juggle her gun as she turned.<p>

The scene behind her was forever etched in her memory. Danny lay atop his daughter protectively, his arm extended toward the back door. His pant leg was rucked up to show an empty ankle holster that corresponded to the backup pistol in his hand. The pseudo-pilot lay face down, gun hand just inside the back door

Danny's quick scanning gaze caught Rachel's startled stare. "Eyes front!" he barked.

She spun and fired twice out the front door without aiming. The men who had begun to ease out of cover, ducked back down again.

"Guess I never got to the lesson about watching your back," Danny commented.

"Daddy?"

"Stay there, Grace. Don't look until I take out the trash."

Danny went to the back door carefully. He checked for the pilot's pulse and didn't mind when he didn't find one. He shoved the body outside and fastened the door shut.

The sound of a helicopter rattled the windowpanes.

"What's that?" Ernie asked fearfully.

"The other half of my family," Danny answered. "I hope."

Danny's phone rang. "I like your timing," Danny said.

"We're coming in," Steve reported.

"We're all in the office. I count three suspects out front," Danny answered as the copter came into view.

This time Steve had commandeered a police helicopter, complete with pilot and a couple of SWAT officers. Super SEAL himself stood in the open side door — strapped in, thank heavens — with a nasty looking machine gun raised to his eye. It spoke in a rattling roar as loud as the copter. Spurts of dirt traced a path to the kidnappers' no-longer-adequate cover.

"Throw down your guns and surrender!" Chin's voice bellowed from the loudspeaker.

The three would-be kidnappers dropped their weapons and raised their hands, turning their heads away as the helicopter kicked dust in their faces. Steve, Aku, Kono, Chin and two SWAT officers leaped from the helicopter as it touched down. Kono, Chin and Aku began handcuffing and searching the suspects, while Steve stood guard. The SWAT officers spread out to look for any stray suspects.

* * *

><p>Inside the building, Rachel and Stan fell into each other's arms. Danny looked away, catching a glimpse of Ernie sitting down with his head in his hands.<p>

"Daddy, you're bleeding again," Grace said.

Danny hoisted her onto his hip. "C'mon. Let's go scare Uncle Steve." He carried Grace out the door.

"What, no 'Ride of the Valkyries'?" Danny asked as he came up behind Steve.

Steve's smirk was firmly in place as he turned. "I knew I forgot something," he began, then his expression changed to concern when he saw the blood on Danny's face.

Grace giggled. "Daddy said you'd be scared. It's just a little scalp cut," she parroted. "They bleed like a sonova-uh-gun."

Steve relaxed and gave Danny a censorious look. He knew from the way Grace said it, that Danny had almost sworn in front of his daughter.

"Are you all right?" Steve asked his partner.

"Bullet hit a pot and I got my bell rung by a piece of it. The kidnappers would have had me, if Stan and Rachel hadn't rescued me," Danny said drily.

Steve couldn't believe his ears.

"Stan and Rachel?"

"Stan and Mommy saved Daddy," Grace said proudly.

"It's true. They were the heroes. I didn't do anything," Danny told his partner.

His daughter looked at him like he was nuts. "Daddy!" she protested. "You saved all of us at the airplane and you drove the car." She made vigorous swooping motions with the hand that wasn't wrapped around her father's neck. "And you shot the man at the door."

"OK, it was a family project," Danny admitted. "Everybody helped."

"Family?" Steve asked, looking sidelong at Stan who stood with his arm around the woman that Danny still loved.

Danny shrugged sadly. "What can I say, I've got a complicated family. Speaking of which…"

He set down the girl and told her to go to Kono, then he whispered something in her ear. She opened her eyes in alarm. He nodded.

Grace ran to Kono and tugged her down, then whispered in her ear. Kono's eyes widened. She looked at Danny and he nodded corroboration. Kono gave a single nod of confirmation and spoke quietly to Chin. She and her cousin drifted toward Stan and Rachel, placing themselves near the Edwards family.

Steve watched all this silently, feeling the tension in his partner.

"Come on, Steve. I want to introduce you. Rachel," Danny called. "You remember Steve McGarrett. Steve, this is Rachel's husband, Stan Edwards. And this is Stan's right-hand man, Ernie Fleming." Danny clamped an overly affectionate arm around Ernie's neck. "Ernie is the one who made Stan's travel arrangements. And, you'll never believe it, but Ernie is psychic. He was all nervous at the airport before anything happened. And he watched the phony pilot come in the back door of the office, without warning the rest of us."

Steve turned a cold gaze on the administrative assistant. "Ernie, did you set up your boss to be kidnapped?"

Ernie's eyes flicked from person to person, then they closed in a dead faint.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Danny said, letting Ernie drop.

One of the captured kidnappers looked at Ernie contemptuously. "He sold you out for a few thousand bucks," he told Stan. "Our boss — the pilot — he wanted financial info from Edwards and planned to use the wife and girl as leverage."

"And then they'd have been killed, like the plane's real pilot?" Danny said.

"Maybe. Probably. Tyler didn't like loose ends. But he didn't tell Mr. Secretary that. Shit, he'd have probably killed wussy boy before we left the airport," the gunman said dismissively.

"Aku, will you get these guys out of here before I give them splenectomies with my bare hands?" Danny asked the SWAT lieutenant, who was glad to oblige.

"Danny, I don't know how to say, thank you," Stan said, as he and Rachel came over to the detective.

"Yes, Danny," Rachel added. "Thank you. If you hadn't come to the airport …" She shuddered.

Danny waved the gratitude away. "I was just looking out for my family. Anyway, I think you two paid me back," he added, touching the seeping wound on his forehead. Uncomfortable chatting with his ex and her husband, Danny was glad when Grace ran over to him and broke the mood.

"Uncle Steve wanted me to tell you something," she said. She pointed at Ernie who was just recovering from his faint. "Book him, Danno," she said.

Her father's glare met Steve's smirk. Danny accepted that he had a complicated family, but he was going to have words with his brother Steve — lots and lots of words.

**The End**


End file.
